Creating Effective Post Excerpts

Ever noticed those little preview snippets that show up on your blog’s homepage or archive pages? That’s your excerpt—basically a teaser for your full post.

Most people skip customizing their excerpt and let WordPress generate one automatically. That’s fine, honestly. But if you’re wondering why your posts aren’t getting clicked, your excerpts might be the problem.

Here’s the thing: Your excerpt is like a movie trailer. It needs to hook people without giving everything away. We’ll show you how to write excerpts that actually get readers to click through and read your full post.

Prerequisites

• You need access to your Badass Network blog dashboard
• You should know how to create or edit a blog post
• That’s pretty much it—this doesn’t take any technical skills

What’s an Excerpt, Really?

An excerpt is a short summary of your blog post. It appears in places like:

• Your blog’s homepage (if you’re showing a list of posts)
• Category and tag archive pages
• Search results within your blog
• RSS feeds
• Sometimes in social media previews, though that depends on other settings

WordPress automatically creates an excerpt by grabbing the first 55 words of your post. Sometimes that works fine. But often? You end up with a choppy preview that cuts off mid-sentence and doesn’t really tell people what the post’s about.

That’s where custom excerpts come in. You write your own preview—usually 1-3 sentences—that actually sells the post.

Finding the Excerpt Field

Here’s where people get confused: The excerpt field isn’t always visible when you’re writing a post. WordPress hides it by default, which seems weird but that’s how it works.

If you’re using the Block Editor:

Type your custom excerpt in that field. It’ll replace the automatic one WordPress would’ve generated.

Writing Excerpts That Get Clicks

Okay, you’ve found where to add excerpts. Now what do you actually write?

Most people make their excerpts too vague or too detailed. You’re aiming for something in between—specific enough to be interesting, but not so complete that people don’t need to read the full post.

What works:

• Starting with a question your post answers
• Highlighting the main benefit or takeaway
• Teasing something surprising or counterintuitive
• Being specific about what the post covers

What doesn’t work:

• Repeating your post title word-for-word
• Writing a generic “In this post, we’ll discuss…” intro
• Making it so detailed it replaces reading the post
• Leaving it blank and hoping WordPress does a good job

Here’s an example. Let’s say you wrote a post titled “How to Choose Blog Post Topics.”

See the difference? The second one creates curiosity and promises something unexpected. It gives a reason to click.

How Long Should Your Excerpt Be?

Most themes display around 150-200 characters (about 25-35 words) before cutting off or adding a “Read more” button. Some show more, some show less.

We’d recommend keeping your excerpt under 160 characters if possible—that’s about two sentences. Think of it like a tweet. If you can’t hook someone in that space, making it longer probably won’t help.

That said, don’t stress too much about character counts. Focus on making those first couple sentences compelling. If it runs a bit longer, that’s fine. Your theme will handle the display.

When You Don’t Need a Custom Excerpt

You don’t always need to write a custom excerpt. Skip it if:

• Your post starts with a really strong opening paragraph that works perfectly as a preview
• You’re just writing personal updates where the first 55 words capture it fine
• Your blog doesn’t show excerpts anywhere (some themes just show full posts on the homepage)

To check if your blog uses excerpts, visit your homepage or any category archive page. If you see short previews with “Read more” links, you’re showing excerpts. If you see full posts, custom excerpts won’t matter much—though they’ll still appear in RSS feeds.

Excerpt Tips from Our Experience

Lead with benefits, not features.
Don’t write “This post covers five ways to…” Instead: “Your blog posts could get 3x more engagement with these strategies—the third one surprised us.”

Use your post’s best line.
If you wrote a sentence in your post that perfectly captures the point, use that as your excerpt. You’re allowed to reuse your own content.

Match your post’s tone.
If your post is casual and funny, your excerpt should be too. If it’s serious and in-depth, make the excerpt match. Misleading tone turns people off fast.

Test what works for your audience.
Some audiences respond to questions. Others prefer direct benefits. Pay attention to which posts get clicked—that’ll tell you what excerpt style resonates.

Don’t overthink it.
Honestly, spending 30 seconds on an excerpt is usually enough. You’re not writing a dissertation. A couple clear, interesting sentences will do the job.

Excerpts in RSS Feeds

Quick note about RSS: If people subscribe to your blog via RSS (some still do, especially other bloggers), they’ll see your excerpt in their feed reader. That’s why setting a custom excerpt can be worth it even if your theme shows full posts on your homepage.

Some bloggers intentionally keep excerpts short to encourage people to visit the actual blog. Others prefer showing the full post in RSS feeds. It depends on whether you care more about site visits or reader convenience. Most people lean toward shorter excerpts to drive traffic.

Common Situations

Troubleshooting Excerpt Issues

My excerpt isn’t showing up.
Check your theme settings. Some themes have an option to show “full posts” instead of excerpts on archive pages. If that’s enabled, your custom excerpt won’t display. Look under Appearance > Customize > Blog Settings (the exact location varies by theme).

The excerpt is cutting off weird.
If WordPress is still using the automatic excerpt even though you wrote a custom one, clear your site’s cache. If you’re using any caching plugins—or if Badass Network has caching enabled—it might be showing an old version. Give it a few minutes or ask support to clear the cache.

My excerpt shows weird characters or HTML tags.
If you pasted text from Word or another program, it might’ve brought along hidden formatting. Try rewriting the excerpt directly in WordPress, or paste as plain text first (Ctrl+Shift+V or Cmd+Shift+V).

The excerpt length varies between pages.
That’s normal. Different pages might use different excerpt lengths depending on layout. Your homepage might show 150 characters while category archives show 100. That’s controlled by your theme’s design, not something you did wrong.

Making Excerpts Part of Your Workflow

Here’s what we do: Write the post first, then come back and write the excerpt right before publishing. By that point, you know exactly what the post covers and what the most compelling angle is.

Some people write the excerpt first as a planning tool. That works too—it forces you to clarify what the post is about before you dive in. Try both approaches and see what feels natural.

Either way, excerpts shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. If you’re spending ten minutes crafting the perfect excerpt, you’re overthinking it. Write something clear and interesting, then move on.

What You’ve Done

You now know where to find the excerpt field, how to write excerpts that get clicks, and when custom excerpts actually matter. More importantly, you know what length works best and how to avoid common mistakes.

Next time you publish a post, take 30 seconds to write a custom excerpt. See if it affects how many people click through to read the full thing. That’s the real test.

If you want to dive deeper into getting more readers, check out our guides on SEO-friendly titles and optimizing your blog’s homepage layout.